Yesterday's Weapons Forums

Please forgive my lack of knowledge, in both forum use, and my new rifle. After cleaning rifles recently I looked at my gun rack and realized that somewhere, sometime, I had become a Mauser collector. I had just picked up a '71 making 6 total of one kind or another. Well, I am tired of just cleaning and looking....I want to shoot this Mod/71! I don't know where to start. It has 10.95 stamped in receiver. I assume that it was originally blackpowder. Will gladly handload to shoot if needed. What now???

A pic would help, but if it's a model 71 Mauser, it takes 43 Mauser ammo. AKA 11.15x60R http://www.buffaloarms.com has brass & dies. So does Grafs.com, and they have cheeper shipping.

If you elect to buy the cheeper Lee dies, save yourself a BIG headache and get an RCBS shell holder at the same time. The Lee shell holder WILL break and soon at that. Mine lasted 9 rounds, and that's over average.

On another forum, 4 fellows related how their Lee shellholder failed on the 1st round!

Buffalo arms sells pre-made bullets, but you can still get a dedicated Lyman mould that throws a 340 grain bullet - or so from grafs or midwayusa,com. With lube, mine weigh 350 grains.

45-90 data is recommended, but 45-70 works just as well. I have used 28.0 grains of accurate arms 5744 withthe Lyman bullet for velocities in the 1500 fps range.

If you go with black or BP sub, just be sure to leave no air gap between powder & bullet and away you go. I tried 777 with a couple .030 Walters veggie wads & no pressure signs or bruised shoulder. The rifle is heavy enough to dampen a lot of the recoil.

I believe you are right about the 10.95 being the actual bore diameter - mine reads 11.05 You can slug the bore to be sure. With a soft lead alloy in your bullets, you should be all right with the same data. Start low to be safe and work up, though.

These are a lot of fun to shoot! SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

Thanks alot for the quick reply. You have already answered most of the questions I have. I do want to shoot BP so when I get home I will check out the sites you gave me and get started gettin' geared up to shoot this thing! I am sure the more I get into this the more questions I will have. Thanking you for your patience ahead of time!
Steve

No snobbery allowed on this site! Folks here will help out. I had quite a time trying to get straight answers on other BPCR forums and discovered a lot of what I post on my own.

I try to post from actual experience whenever possible. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

Odd, I looked mine over. I have a Steyr Kar Mod. 71 made in 1877 with a 10.95 mark, an 1888 Spandau Mod. 71/84 also with a 10.95 mark but my
1876 IG Mod. 71 has no such marking, then again it is a Danzig manufacture & according to my books they only made carbines

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It's 5 o'clock and it's watermelon time.....................
because you can't drink beer & load rockets - TXPete

Mine with the 11.05 mark is an 1888 Spandau 71/84. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

I believe that mine was made in Amberg and is marked "J.G. M/71". It is also marked with the date "1883" on the receiver and the "10.95" is on the breech directly in front of the receiver.

Should I buy rounds from Buffalo and use that brass to reload if I find that this is going to be a shooter?

I will add photos if I figure it out.

Again, thanks for all the help.
Steve

Loaded ammo from there is expensive, but it's your call. Last time I looked, grafs listed Jamison 43 Mauser brass, & it's not that cheep, either. Good brass & will last you many loadings.

It's heat treated right & won't split like bertram brass often does.

If you buy brass and discover you won't be needing it, you can advertise it for sale at places like here & people ( like me! ) will buy it.

So look up all the componets & crunch the numbers vs what loaded ammo would cost you... your call after that. SW

Posting pics is easy as pie. First, you need a photohost like photobucket or villagephotos. There are several out there, and you upload pics to them straight from the pic file of your computey.

Once the image is at a photohost, right click it for properties where you will see the URL. Cut ( or copy) that and come back here.

Begin a new post, and click on the 'img' prompt above the message. Paste ( or print) the URL between [img]and[/img]. Your pic will then appear in the post!

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Slava Ukraini!!